I've read plenty about the war waged between the Sui Dynasty and the Korean Kingdom of Goguryeo, but very little about the Sui ambition to reclaim other traditional Han territory farther south in modern-day Vietnam. A quote from the book East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History (Ebrey, Walthall, Palais) is written thus:

"Both Sui emperors viewed their empire building as incomplete because they had not recovered the parts of modern Korea and Vietnam that the Han Dynasty had held. The Hanoi area was easily recovered from the local ruler in 602, and a few years later the Sui army pushed farther south. When the army was attacked by troops on war elephants from Champa (in southern Vietnam), Sui feigned retreat and dug pits to trap the elephants. The Sui army lured the Champan troops to attack, then used crossbows against the elephants, causing them to turn around and trample their own army. Although Sui troops were victorious, many succumbed to disease, as northern soldiers did not have immunity to tropical diseases such as malaria." (Ebrey, 90)

This is an interesting quote, but I found myself wanting to know more about the conflict and the final outcome of the campaign (since Tang China did not include the southern portion of modern-day Vietnam). Does anybody know anything about this, and how the Chinese were pushed back farther north? Likewise, was Champa a tributary vassal to the Tang court, on terms of mutual friendly diplomacy like the Korean Silla Kingdom was to Tang China?

Eric

The Linyi/Champa campaign in 605 was technically Yang Guang's (Sui Yangdi) first offensive war as Emperor (the previous year, he had defeated a rebellion by his brother Yang Liang). However, the Sui invasion forces were already assembling near Champa when Yang Jian (Sui Wendi) died - or was assassinated, if the rumours are true. The real reason for invading Champa, according to the Sui Shu, was not out of a desire to reclaim lost Han territory; rather, Champa had stopped sending tribute to the Sui court for almost 15 years (the first and only time was right after the Sui conquered the Chen dynasty, the previous recipient of Champa's tribute, in 589) and the court officials started urging Yang Jian to conquer Champa because now "all was at peace under Heaven" and furthermore "Linyi had many exotic treasures". In other words, it was imperial adventurism driven by the avarice of a rather complacent superpower in search of new and profitable places to conquer. The invasion was conceived by Yang Jian, and his untimely death left Yang Guang with the responsibility of either cancelling it or letting it go on as planned. Yang Guang chose to let it carry on.

The Commander-in-Chief of the invasion was Liu Fang, who had in 602-603 (as the Ebrey quote mentions) recaptured northern Vietnam from the native 'rebel' Li Fozi. Prior to this, Liu had served the Northern Zhou and Sui in various wars, gaining promotions for good performance, but had not won any fame. The campaign against Li Fozi, however, established his reputation as a strict disciplinarian who was nonetheless kind to his troops and would even personally look after subordinates who were ill. He became the natural choice to command the Champa operation.

The Champa invasion had two prongs: 1) An overland assault by over 10,000 foot and horse as well as several thousand conscripted convicts, commanded by Ning Changzhen, Li Yun, and Qin Xiong, and 2) a naval assault with a fleet personally commanded by Liu Fang and his Adjutant Li Gang. The initial battles went well for the Sui despite the Cham armies making use of natural obstacles, but the Cham king then led his elephant-mounted troops out and counterattacked. There are two accounts of this battle (one in Liu Fang's biography, one in the section on Champa), both of which may be true. In the first account, Liu Fang uses crossbows to shoot the elephants and make them stampede back on the Cham infantry; in the second, Liu lures the elephants into concealed pits with a feigned retreat. In both accounts, the Cham army routs, and Liu Fang advances on, winning victory after victory, until he reaches the Cham capital. The Cham king has fled out to sea, so Liu enters the city unopposed, loots 18 idols cast in gold from the royal temple, lets the Sui troops rape the royal concubines, and then withdraws after erecting a stone stele commemorating the victory.

Then, as if under a curse for their atrocities, the Sui troops begin dying from a disease that causes their legs to swell. Eventually 40-50% of them die (i.e. at least 4,000-5,000), and Liu Fang himself falls ill and dies on the way back to northern Vietnam. Furthermore, although Champa was officially reorganized into three Sui prefectures and Prefects were sent to administer them, the Cham king soon returned and reoccupied the whole of his kingdom, built a new capital, and then sent an embassy to plead with the Sui emperor for 'forgiveness'. Yang Guang simply allowed him to resume tribute missions to the Sui court, rather than attempt another invasion. According to the Xin Tangshu section on Champa, this was because "the route [to Champa] was obstructed and none could pass through". There is no record of what happened to the three Sui Prefects.

Indeed, Yang Guang undertook no foreign adventures of his own until the invasion of the Tuyuhun in 609 (which was a great success) and the invasion of Taiwan/Liuqiu in 610 (which was a military success but could not be translated into actual annexation). So it is rather hard to see any real link between the Champa invasion of 605 and Yang Guang's infamous Koguryo invasions in 611-614. It is likely that Yang Guang was busy consolidating his authority in the years before 609, and did not feel ready to embark on imperial expansion. The invasion of Champa was a project inherited from his father, and he himself had no enthusiasm for it.

Later on, when Champa became a Tang tributary and was rather disrespectful in its letters to the Tang court, the Tang ministers urged Li Shimin (Tang Taizong) to punish the Cham. Li Shimin clearly saw the Sui invasions of Koguryo as more representative than the Sui invasion of Champa, pointing out that Fu Jian of the Former Qin and Yang Guang of the Sui had brought about the downfall of their empires through launching reckless invasions (of the Eastern Jin and Koguryo respectively), and he would not do the same. Neither he nor any other Tang emperor saw Champa as rightfully belonging to his dynasty, or as a place worth conquering. Thus from 605 onwards, there were no further 'Chinese' attempts to attack Champa until the time of the Mongol conquests.

Some interesting tribute items from Champa to the Tang court:

1) a tame elephant

2) a tame rhinoceros

3) a 'fire-pearl' that was as large as a hen's egg, glowed with a bright light, and could set leaves alight if placed on top of them under the noonday sun

4) a five-coloured parrot - Tang Taizong was much impressed by its plumage and ordered one of his ministers to compose a poem about it

5) a white parrot that could talk and answer questions - Tang Taizong felt sorry for it and told the Cham envoy who brought it to take it back to Champa and release it in the jungle

Wow, dude! Thanks, Yun, that was lengthy and detailed. Just the answer I was looking for, actually.

Good work,
Eric

Aside from elephants, were there any records of the Cham military machine? Armoring? Weapons and equipment? Amount on foot and horse?

Champa was not part of any 'chinese lost territory' as far as I know. Vietnam was part of China and was still part of China during the Sui dynasty.

However, the original Vietnam included North Vietnam only. The middle and southern Vietnam are newly conquered territories from the Champa and Khmer Kingdom respectively.

The northern part of Champa/Linyi was actually the southernmost part of Han territory until the late Eastern Han, under Rinan prefecture. Linyi was founded in 190-193, when a 'barbarian' chieftain named Ou Lian (who had been attacking Han garrisons since 137) captured Xianglin county in Rinan. Linyi expanded northwards through frequent raids in Rinan prefecture, but the Han and Wu courts continued to station Prefects at Rinan to resist the Linyi raids. In 248, Wu and Linyi signed a truce that recognized Shouleng county in Rinan as the border between them.

So if the Sui and Tang emperors wanted to stake a claim to the northern part of Champa as lost territory from Eastern Han Rinan, they could have done so. But they certainly had no claim over the area of the Cham capital.

I know next to nothing about the Champa invagion, so I have a few topic related questions:

Why is it that the failed Sui invasions of Koguryo are so well known and detailed, but the Sui successes against Champa are relatively ignored and brief?

Also, what made the Sui invasion of Champa so successful (at least before the troops were disease ridden), when the Sui camaigns against Koruryo became repetative, logistical nightmares, i.e. stringing out their supply lines, ordering forced marches on limited rations, allowing themselves to be lured by the enemy, racing to the enemy capitol while ignoring enemy strongholds, attacking prematurely, etc..? Both Korea (barren, cold mountains) and Vietnam (Malaria infested jungle) have difficult terrain, and I wouldn't think that the Champa army would fight with less resolve. It's as if Yang Guan had amnesia and forgot all of Sunzi's teachings...

Well, that's not fair. Why didn't Tang Taizong feel sorry for the multi-colored parrot? Why did he feel sorry only for the white parrot? Jeez, what a racist! (Minus the humor, the answer is pretty sincere, so if anyone has the information...)



Actually Korea was very successful until the very end when only Silla was left. Around that time I noticed that Tang lost a lot of battles not just in Korea, but around it's entire border from west to east, north to south(and then followed by the AnLuShan rebellion). Overexpanded I guess.

Scientifically speaking, I actually feel sorry for the White parrot, the multi colored parrot is at least safe from danger and starvation, the same can't be said about the white one thats set "free".

Not to worry, I doubt the Cham envoy really followed Tang Taizong's instructions

Perhaps Taizong was just freaked out by seeing a parrot that was so smart it could answer questions like a human being? He may have felt this was unnatural and that the parrot should be returned to a natural environment without human beings to talk to...

Are the warriors from champa wear armor like their sui counterparts?

But wouldn't it be speaking Cham. How would Tang Taizong know what the parrot is speaking?

Talking Sui not Tang campaigns. Shimin had an indecisive standoff with Koguryo; final conquest would rest with his son's reign, an adventure which was very successful.

The time between the first successful border recalcitrants and An Lushan is rather long, and Tang had more than its share of victories particularly against Tibet in this period

Not all of them. They are indeed naked. However, cavalry officers, elephant archers did wear some kind of brigandines. They did use shield, an ablonged one as depicted in Dai Viet porcelain in XII century.

Jiu Tangshu and Xin Tangshu state that the Cham king's bodyguard, numbering 5,000, wore rattan armour. Sui Shu, however, says there were about 200 royal bodyguards armed with gilded sabres, lances, bamboo bows and crossbows, and poison arrows, but does not mention armour. So it is very likely that the Cham army of the Sui period was smaller and completely unarmoured compared to that of the 9th and 10th centuries, which is the one described by Jiu Tangshu and Xin Tangshu.

Depictions of the later Cham army can be found in the 12th-century bas reliefs at the Bayon in Angkor:
http://angkorblog.com/_wsn/page10.html

That is quite interesting. Champa was, for some reasons, described as better in fighting than even Dai Viet armies.

During the Tran's dynasty (which was suppose to be during the apex era of Dai-Viet), Champa troops attacked Thang Long repeatedly and almost overtake Dai-Viet's kingdom as well until Che-Bong-Nga (the most valored Cham's king) got killed during an ambush. Champa had been quite a formidable foe of Dai-Viet throughout lengthen period though.